IOLab

IOLab

"There’s nothing like having your hands on something while your brain is thinking about it. Some effective learning goes on when your hands are tactilely doing something and you’re seeing it happen, as opposed to just hearing or reading about it."
- Mats Selen, IOLab creator

The device has two parts. One is a wireless, battery-powered black box, slightly smaller than a graphing calculator, containing a small computer, a radio chip and a variety of sensors. The other component contains a receiver and links to a computer through a USB cable. The IOLab – for Interactive Online Lab – can measure acceleration, orientation, magnetic fields, electrical signals, frequency spectra, time constants and more. A user could even measure the speed of light merely equipped with the IOLab, a piece of scrap aluminum and a ruler.

Selen is testing the IOLab and accompanying software in Physics 100, an introductory course with 500 students, many of whom have little or no physics experience. The software guides the students through a lesson and gathers data from the IOLab device for analysis. The students can see, in real time, how a plot changes based on the motion of the wireless component.

About our group

Physics Education Research (PER) is research into the learning, understanding and teaching of physics and the application of physics knowledge. Our group has a broad range of research interests that include the role of mathematics and reflection in physics learning, the organization and deployment of physics knowledge by experts and novices, differences in perception of physical diagrams and motion between experts and novices, transfer studies, the design and implementation of web-based instruction, curriculum reform, and the evaluation of educational assessments. Experimental techniques and analyses we use in our research include eye-tracking, video analysis, student interviews, web-based log data analysis, and exam question analysis. As a piece of our department's curriculum reform of the introductory sequence, we are in on-going development of web-based instructional materials that include interactive examples, prelectures, and smartPhysics. Our group includes members from both the Physics Department and the School of Education.